Hills i/d for Pancreatitis Kitty

Recently my furball, Winston was diagnosed with Pancreatitis. His appetite had disappeared completely and if he did try to eat anything, he would throw it up immediately. After several rounds of x-rays and blood work, our vet confirmed that it was Pancreatitis and Winston was hospitalized for two days to stabilize him. Since then, Winston has bounced back really well and he's back to his old, fat self. Our vet is confident that Winston has a long life ahead of him and that this can be a very manageable diagnosis. To reduce the likelihood of future flare-ups our vet recommended that I switch Winston's food to Hill's Prescription Diet i/d Gastrointestinal Health.

Winston has been on this food for a month now and he loves it. I'm not completely sold on it though. I had done a lot of research on quality foods when I first adopted him and I have been feeding Winston Weruva and Tiki Cat for the last year. I had heard that Hill's was considered a low quality cat food so I had stayed away from it until the vet recommended it.

I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this food? Or better still, does anyone know if there is a better diet option for a Pancreatitis cat? Winston has a check up appointment at the end of the month so I'm trying to do my homework now so that I can talk diet options through with our vet.

My cat Sebastian has chronic pancreatitis. I truly believe that every cat is different and will respond differently to various treatments and foods. Personally, I would not feed Hill's i/d to Sebastian because there are several ingredients that raise red flags - wheat flour, corn starch, brewers rice, dried beet pulp, dicalcium phosphate, powdered cellulose, guar gum. I know how sensitive Sebastian is and what to avoid.

When Sebastian was first diagnosed (July 2013), the vet recommended he be put on a hypoallergenic diet to eliminate the possibility of food allergies being a culprit of his pancreatitis. He was put on Royal Canin rabbit and green pea - mostly wet, a little dry. He did well on this for awhile. The canned actually isn't all that bad ingredient-wise. But Sebastian starting rejecting it after five months, so I ended up putting him on a rotational diet - six single proteins of canned and balanced home-cooked meat, each at three weeks at a time. This is a pretty new change, but so far so good. I have eliminated dry food entirely.

I just try to stay as limited ingredient as possible, easily digestible (important!), no grains, no fillers, high protein, and just recently, no guar gum (I think I figured out he's allergic to guar gum).

Is Winston getting only the canned? Or does he get the dry, too? I would definitely recommend an all wet diet. It is easier for them to process. Dry food is too hard on the system.

Is there a chance Winston could get sick of eating the same food every day? If so, you have to be prepared for the day that he starts rejecting it.

No one diet will suit all cats, in my opinion. I tried the raw route, and it didn't go over well for Sebastian, but has been a lifesaver for others.

I agree with Go Holistic, I do not like a lot of the ingredients in the foods, that being said I work for a vet and have seen it do wonders with pancreatitis kitties.  Again it's not something I would feed my own cat long term.  A lot of pancreatitis kitties do well on a limited ingredient diet as mentioned above.  My Deejay has mild chronic pancreatitis and she has done extremely well on Raw (however as mentioned above it's not a fix all for all kitties).

GoHolistic said:

Is Winston getting only the canned? Or does he get the dry, too? I would definitely recommend an all wet diet. It is easier for them to process. Dry food is too hard on the system.

Is there a chance Winston could get sick of eating the same food every day? If so, you have to be prepared for the day that he starts rejecting it.

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Winston currently only eats canned food. When I adopted him he was almost 30 pounds (!!!!) so for the last year he's been on high quality wet food and I've been gradually decreasing his caloric intake over time as his weight has come off. He's now at 20 pounds and I've been keeping him on wet food since it seems that he gains weight VERY quickly if introduced to any sort of dry food.

Luckily, Winnie isn't a picky eater, which makes this whole process a lot easier. I have yet to find a food that he won't eat. He even tries to eat things that aren't edible!

I'm liking the idea of a raw diet and having total control over what he is eating. The Hill's has been good for him so far and it has helped him bounce back from his first flare-up but overall, it doesn't seem like the most nutritionally sound option. Raw seems a little intimidating but it's worth a try!